DUP has put unionism in the gutter: Swann
The billboard on the street outside the Armagh City Hotel boasted that a funfair was in town. It didn’t signpost the location but it most certainly wasn’t inside the three-star hotel at the Ulster Unionist Party conference, where they were in no mood for a carnival, instead lining up the DUP in the sights of their verbal shooting gallery.
Speaker after speaker had Arlene Foster’s party in the firing line over RHI, foreign holidays, legacy issues, “shambolic” government, bullying and Brexit. And that was only the half of it.
Robin Swann was sniper-inchief. After taking flak last year over his first leader’s speech for having fired too many blanks at the DUP it was clear he didn’t want to make the same mistake again.
He took aim at his rivals with almost every utterance. But not all his shots hit their target.
His laid-back, laconic delivery isn’t tailor-made for rousing audiences, but that’s never been his style say his allies who denied that his 38-minute speech, broadcast live on television, had failed to wound the DUP.
Other speakers didn’t miss their rivals and hit the wall. UUP elder statesmen Jim Speers, who attended his first conference 56 years ago, didn’t actually spell out the letters DUP but he said it was evident to “a man on a galloping horse” that “other unionists” were only interested in themselves.
He branded the DUP a party ULSTER Unionist leader Robin Swann has launched a sustained and vitriolic attack on the DUP, accusing his rivals of dragging unionism into the gutter and saying the battle is on to save the Union from Arlene Foster’s party.
Addressing the UUP’s annual conference in Armagh at the weekend, Mr Swann accused the DUP and Sinn Fein of self-interest and paranoia and said the RHI Inquiry had shown just how shambolic the last Stormont Executive had been. He cited evidence from the probe that ministers didn’t read legislation, that minute-taking was cast aside, and called it “grubby politics”.
“And then I reflect on how unionism has been dragged into the gutter by the DUP. And I feel angry,” he said.
“The irony is that when the DUP have the perfect opportunity to be at the fore of pan-UK unionism, their Ulster nationalism shines through. It’s grotesque.
“It’s as bad as holidaying at the expense of a foreign government or breaching Westminster rules against paid advocacy. It’s not good enough. For Northern Ireland, for unionism.”
He also criticised the Irish Government, accusing it of trying to exploit Brexit to weaken the integrity of the UK. He told Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tanaiste Simon Coveney “‘to tread carefully”.
Turning to Sinn Fein, he said it seemed to be “utterly incapable of showing any sensitivity towards victims of IRA violence”.
He added: “You cannot preach reconciliation while in the next breath lauding sectarian killers and shouting ‘up the rebels’.” He said what he called Sinn Fein’s main act of reconciliation had been to tell unionists that they could retain their British identity in a united Ireland.
He added:“I say to Mary-Lou (McDonald) my British identity is not something that you get to allow me to have.”
The North Antrim MLA insisted his party, which has lost seats in recent elections, was winning back support from the DUP.
But he said politics in Northern Ireland was deeply broken and claimed devolution wouldn’t be restored any time soon.
He called on the UK Government to instigate talks or step in an appoint ministers and take decisions.
“Stop letting the people of Northern Ireland wither on the vine because you’re either too busy looking over your shoulder at the DUP and frozen in fear at the thought of upsetting Sinn Fein sensitivities,” he said.
He also underlined his party’s concerns over legacy proposals, saying it couldn’t support the Historical Investigations Unit, which he described as “another mess that has the DUP’s fingerprints on it”.